Railway system and method of handling traffic.



v A. L. DRUM. RAILWAY SYSTEM AND METHOD OF HANDLING TRAFFIC.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 18, 1913.

1,076,355. Patented 0015.21, 1913.

WITNESSES: I/VI/E/V TOR AME/VH3 L'ULUMLHA PLANOGRAPH c0.. WASHINGTON, D.c,

ALPHQNSUS I DEUMZ Q15 GHLAND ARK, IL O RAILWAY SYSTEM AND METHOD OFHANDLING TRAFFIC.

intens Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 21,1913.

Application filed June 18, 19.13. Serial No. 774,316.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALPHONSUS L. DRUM, acitizen of the United States, residing at Highland Park, in thecounty ofLake and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Railway Systems and Methods of Handling Traffic, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and ex act description, such aswill enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make anduse the same.

llhis invention relates to; railway systems, the arrangement andconstruction of stations and the method of handling traffic.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a simple andpractical arrangement of stations and tracks for efliciently handlingtrafiic.

Another object is to provide an eflicient method of handling passengerswhen entering or leaving trains, or transferring from trains of one lineto those of another.

A further object is to provide a simple and practical arrangement ofparts and appurtenances of a station whereby a maximum passenger trailicmay be smoothly and expeditiously handled andto reduce the interferenceof cross-currents of transfer traffic between trains with the unloadingand loading traffic of such trains.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed outhereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the several steps and the relationand order of one or more of such steps with relation to each of theothers thereof, and in the fea tures of construction, combinations ofelements and arrangement of parts, which will be exemplified in themethod hereinafter disclosed and the construction hereinafter set forth,and the scope of the application of each of which will be indicated inthe fol.- lowing claims.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein is shown one of various possibleembodiments of this invention, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan viewshowing an arrangement of tracks of different lines and of transferstations; and Fig. 2 is a semi-diagrammatic sectional elevation of oneof the transfer stations.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout bothviews of the drawing.

As cities develop, it is generally found that a certain district orcentral portion becomes what is commonly knownas the downtown orbusiness section, toward which. a large part of the population of thecity goes in the morning hours and leaves again at night. It has becomea problem to traction companies to provide means for practically andefiiciently handling this abnormal amount of traffic during the morningand evening rush hours. As property is of high value in this districtthe transportation companies cannot afford the purchase of large areasfor terminal facilities, and the most convenient way of disposing of thetrains is often to provide the routes with adjacent portions and form aloop or circuit permitting a continuous operation of the cars or trains.The present invention is directed to the arrangement of several routesleading to different parts of the city and meeting or terminating atconvenient points, preferably by means of a common loop inclosing thecentral portion of the business section; said routes being provided withstations and transfer points located with a view of most efficiently andrapidly trans ferring the traiiic from one to another as may be desired.

Referring now to the drawing, and more particularly to Fig. 1, there isdiagranr matically shown a terminal loop system inclosing the businesssection for severaldifferent routes leading to. difierent parts of thecity around which loop the trains of the several routes are adapted tomove in the same direction. For instance, A. and B represent the tracksof north and south bound routes, respectively, while the routes orsystems C and D run in a generally east and west direction. While mypresent invention is herein shown as applied to elevated systems, it isof course to be understood that a similar arrangement of routes may beapplied in a subway or street level system without materially changingthe construction or departing from the scope of the invention. llnorderthat these several routes may be more conveniently followed, differentcharacters of lines are used, and while C and D are shown as s paratetracks in passing around the loop, it is to be understood that a singleset of rails is used for accommodating the trains of both routes. At aplurality of points about the loop are arranged stations, in the.present case ten in number, denoted by the numerals 1 to 10, inclusive.These stations are spaced several blocks apart as may be necessary.

Stations 1, 5, 6 and 10 are hereinafter termed transfer stations thatis, stations where passengers may transfer directly from one train toanother, and preferably each transfer station comprises two outsideplatforms and a central island platform;

' the platforms being provided with entrances and exits and some meansbeing provided for directing the transferring traflic,

as positively acting traffic directing means, such as gates andescalators, for a purpose hereinafter more fully described. The otherstations comprise single outside platforms provided with exits andentrances thereto. This arrangement of transfer and ordinary stations atthe several points about the loop will permit the least amount ofoverlapping of through passengers with passengers transferring from oneroute to the other, resulting in reducing the number of passengersv(transfer and through) on the car prior to arriving at the transferstation and consequently increasing the outbound or inbound passengercapacity of the terminal. The fact that the maximum passenger capacityof the terminal is limited by the maximum number of passengers (transferor through) on the cars at any point in the terminal, by securing theleast amount of overlapping of transfer passengers and throughpassengers, the maximum number of through passengers may be served. Ifstation 3 were made a transfer station, for example, there would be anoverlapping of traffic from station 1 to station 3 that would requiremore cars for this short distance to give the same character of service.

As conducive to a clearer understanding of the principles of thisinvention, it may be noted that in the morning operation when traffictravel is heavier, or preponderates toward the loops, the transferstations between either routes C or D and the routes A and B should belocated at a relatively distant point relative to the direction ofpreponderance of traffic travel toward the loop, as at the extreme orlast connecting stations between these routes, so that in transferringpassengers from route A to route D, for example, going west, the westbound train will have had an opportunity to unload its inbound trafficat as many of the earlier stations as possible before it receives theoutgoing transfer passengers from minal stations as possible beforereceiving transfer passengers from the train on route C. Betweensouth-bound trains on route'B and westbound trains on route C the samecondition is sought, and the station 10, being the last stationconnection between these two lines, is used as a transfer point.

In the evening when trafiic travel is heavier, or preponderates awayfrom the terminal loop, the transfer point between any of the east andwest-bound routes and north and south-bound routes should be located ata relatively near point relative to the direction of preponderance oftraffic travel away from the loop, as at the first or oppositeextreme'connecting station between these routes, whereby passengerstransferring from route A to route C or D, the train on route A, for.example, will be relieved of these transferring passengers at theearliest station, thereby permitting the northbound train to be loadedwith its regular through passengers atas many subsequent stations aspossible before leaving the terminal loop. Likewisein transferringpassengers from route O or D to either routes A and B, thetransfer'should be made at the first connecting station between saidroutes, thereby relieving the trains on routes C and D of such transferpassengers and allowing more room for the regular west-bound passengersentering the train at subsequent stations, thus eliminating confusionwhen the cars are more crowded. r

It will thus be seen that the transferring passengers may leave thetrains before they become crowded with the non-transferring passengers,thereby permitting the trafficto be comfortably and rapidly handled. For

illustration, if in the evening when the traffic is heavier away fromthe terminal loop, transfer passengers from route C or D weretransferred to route A'at station .3 in place of station 1, the transferpassengers on route C or D would overlap the originating or throughpassengers boarding cars on route O or D at stations 1' and 2 andconsequently limit the loading of cars on route G or D at stations 1 and2 to the amount of said overlap.

Variations of this arrangementmay be made if found necessary in order tosatisfy the demands of the public. For instance, some passengers comingin on'route C may wish to transfer to route 13 going south, in whichcase they may be allowed to transfer at station 10 instead of continuingaround the loop to transfer at station 6, Likewise passengers coming inon route D may be allowed to transfer at station 6 to trains going outon route without the necessity of going around the loop to station 5.

In Fig. 2, in which'station 1 is shown diagrammatically in sectionalelevation, 11 and 12 denote the outside platforms adjacent thei'I'ZLCliS of routes A and GD, respectively. Between the routes islocated an island platform 13 which is preferably used exclusively as atransfer and unloading platform between the two routes. Beneath thetracks of the routes is provided a mezzanine or transverse platform itconnected with the platforms l1 and 12 by escalators or stairs l5 and16, respectively. Traffic guiding means 17 also lead from the platform13 to this mezzanine platform and turnstiles 18 are provided to permitan exit of the passengers only. Stairs or escalators 20 at each endof'the platform 14 are provided for passengers going to and from theplatforms ll and 12 and from platform 13.

It will thus be seen that this arrangement provides a terminalconstruction for train traffic in the same direction or in oppositedirections with outside platforms and an island platform positionedbetween the routes, with trafhc guiding means for positively directingthe traflic in the proper channels; the island platform being used eX-clusively as an unloading and transfer platform, thereby maintaining thetraflic in undisturbed currents and eliminating the interference ofcross-currents of transfer traffie between the trains with loadingtraffic and of unloading trafiic with loading traffic.

The simultaneous unloading from one side of the car to the islandplatform with the loading to the other side of the car from the outerplatform and the elimination of the interference of cross-currents oftranstraflic and unloading traffic with load ing traffic will reduce theduration of the time of the station stop by 15 to 20 seeends, andconsequently increasing the capacity in cars per hour of the terminal byto 20 per cent.

it will thus be seen that this invention provides a simple and practicalmeans for efficiently handling traffic at all times and provides for auniform and expeditious loading of trains and is adapted to accomplish,among others, all of the objects and advantages above set forth and iswell. suited to meet the requirements of actual practical use.

i is many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shewn in the accompanying drawingshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent is 1. In an arrangement of the character described, incombination, a plurality of routes, a common loop for said routesadapted to handle train traffic in the same or opposite directions, anda plurality of transfer stations located about said loop adapted to beused alternately according to the direction of preponderance of trafiictravel to and from said loop.

2. In an arrangement of the character described, in combination, aplurality of routes, a common loop for said routes adapted to handletrain traffic in the same or opposite directions, a plurality ofstations lo cated about said loop, two of said stations being locatedadjacent the connecting points of the different routes, respectively,means adapting one of said latter stations to be used as atransferringstation when the preponderance of traffic travel is towardsaid loop and means adapting the other of said latter stations tobe'used as a transfer station when the preponderance of traflic travelaway fr m. sai 10 1:-

3. In an arrangement of the character described, in combination, aplurality of routes having a common terminal loop, a plurality oftransfer stations about said loop adjacent the points of connection ofthe several routes, traflic-guiding means associated with said stationsfor directing traflic from one train to another at the last transferpoint when the direction of traffic is toward the loop and at the firsttransfer point when the direction of traffic is from the loop.

4. In an arrangement of the character described, in combination, aplurality of routes, a common terminal loop comprising a pair of tracksadapted to accommodate traflic in the same direction, a transfer stationin said loop comprising a pair of platforms respectively disposed uponthe outer sides of the tracks and contiguous thereto, the station beingfree from tracks upon the outside of said platforms, an island platformpositioned between said tracks and adapted to receive passengers fromeither, and positively disposed traffic directing means formed andadapted to positively guide all traffic toward said first two platformsand away from said island platform, whereby said first platforms areused as loading platforms and said island platform exclusively as anunloading and transfer platform.

5. In construction of the class described, in combination, a pluralityof routes having adjacent portions, stations for the acent portions ofsaid routes, means providing a transfer station for said routes adjacentone end of said adjacent portion when the preponderance of traffictravel is toward said adjacent portion, and means providing a transferstation for said routes adjacent the other end of said adjacent portionwhen the preponderance of traflic travel is away from said adjacentportion.

6. In construction of the class described, in combination, a pluralityof routes having adjacent portions, stations for the adjacent portionsof said routes, means providing an island platform transfer station forsaid routes adjacent one end of said adjacent portion when thepreponderance of traflic travel is toward said adjacent portion, andmeans providing an island platform transfer station for said routesadjacent the other end of said adjacent portion when the preponderanceof traflic travel is away from said adjacent portion.

7 In construction of theclass described, in combination, a plurality ofroutes having a common loop, a plurality of transfer sta tions aboutsaid loop adjacent the points of connection of the several routes, meansassociated with said stations adapted to direct. traflic travel from onetrain to another at the last transfer station when the direction oftraflic travel is toward the loop and at the first transfer point whenthe direction of traffic travel is from the 100p.

8. The method of handlingtraflicwhich comprises providing stations aboutadjacent portions of a plurality of routes, a d transferring traflicfrom one route to a other at the stations adjacent the ends of sa dadjacent portions alternately accordingly as the preponderance oftraffic travel is toward or from said adjacent portion.

9. The method of handling traffic which comprisesproviding stationsabout adjacent portions ofa plurality of routes, and directing thetraffic from one route to another at the stations adjacent'the ends ofsaid adj acent portions alternately accordingly as the preponderance oftraflic travel is toward or from said adjacent portion.

In testimony whereof I afiiX my signature, in the presence of twowitnesses.

ALPHONSUS L. DRUM.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of .Patents,

Washington, I). C.

